World Bank Podcasts

In this episode, Jewel and Andres talk to Iffat Mahmud, one of the authors of the book Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, and Nutrition in Bangladesh: Can Building Toilets Affect Children’s Growth? This book presents the evidence on the relationship between water and sanitation and nutrition. To learn more, visit: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/22800

In rural Kenya, giving birth at home can be risky, and thousands of mothers die each year from complications. Now, more women are delivering at health facilities, due to innovative programs that reward both moms and healthcare workers. The result is better care for mothers and their babies, both before and after they’re born.

Stephen Ling, natural resources specialist with the World Bank takes us on a journey to save the largest freshwater lake in Africa - Lake Victoria. It involves governments of five countries but at the heart of the effort, is the involvement of the community that depends on the lake for their very existence.

A lack of electricity is keeping millions of African communities and businesses in the dark. The Climate Investment Funds are working with many countries across the continent to help them spark an energy revolution and transform their economies. To learn more please follow @CIF_Action or go to http://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org

West Africa’s agricultural sector is collaborating like never before on innovative ways to feed the region—and the results are ‘amazing’. The World Bank’s Abdoulaye Toure says that West Africa’s food system can reach its full potential when countries work together. To view videos on WAAPP, click on the following links: https://youtu.be/GJn8BS-QFNs https://youtu.be/J2n82lN_x8k https://youtu.be/U6Thzt6w3JA

Concentrated Solar Power, or CSP, holds vast potential due to its ability to provide reliable, large-scale power even when the sun is not shining. Morocco has just launched the first phase of the largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the world, which includes funding from the Climate Investment Funds and the World Bank. When fully operational, the plant will produce enough energy for more than one million Moroccans. To learn more please follow @CIF_Action or go to http://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org

A new report shows that the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ extend to the digital world. World Bank Communications Officer Pabsy Pabalan asks report author Indhira Santos to explain how to go from digital divides to digital dividends. Learn more about how digital technologies are affecting development in the 2016 World Development Report: Digital Dividends: http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016

How to get to our goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030? How about we ride a bike – or take the bus? Transportation expert José Viegas explains to World Bank communications officer Pabsy Pabalan why sustainable transportation is an important part of the global effort to end poverty and create opportunity. To learn more, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/transport Event: Transforming Transportation 2016 http://www.transformingtransportation.org/

By measuring where the law treats men and women differently, Women, Business and the Law 2016 shines a light on how women's incentives or capacity to work are affected by the legal environment and provides a basis for improving regulation. The report's quantitative indicators are intended to inform research and policy discussions on how to improve women's economic opportunities and outcomes.

As in many countries, obtaining a passport in Pakistan can be arduous. Lines are long, and unscrupulous people often ask for bribes to speed up applications. In an effort to solve this problem, Pakistan’s government now sends this simple text message to each applicant: “Did you face any problem or did someone ask you for money?” And the responses are flowing in. Learn more about how digital technologies are affecting development in the 2016 World Development Report: Digital Dividends: http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016 Learn more about the World Bank’s governance work at: worldbank.org/governance Follow us on Twitter: @wbg_gov #WDR2016 #goodgov Photo Credit: Adeel Anwer, Flickr creative commons license: https://flic.kr/p/c9MfJL

It’s fascinating how one small change in payments processing can create a ripple effect that changes worlds. In Bihar, India, women are now receiving timely incentive payments, which means better healthcare for their babies and means new access to financial services. Listen to this positive chain reaction and if you like what we’re doing, like us on Facebook.

Despite the threat of violence, outbreaks of gunfire and delays at polling stations, citizens of the Central African Republic turned out for the December 13th referendum on a new constitution. The referendum on the constitution is part of the electoral process that could help stabilize the Central African Republic amid sectarian conflicts that plagued the country for decades. There are still serious problems in parts of the country, where warring factions are intent on retaining control and declaring self-rule. National elections are planned for December 27, however violence has displaced most of the population. United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Central Africa Republic, Abdoulaye Bathily says the renewed electoral process is critical to restoring peace in the country. “The Bangui forum held last May clearly indicated the ways out of the crisis. This country doesn’t lack in human or natural resources. There’s just a need for leadership and accountability on the political lev

Dan: Hey, Paschal. Take a moment to think about your health. Breathe in; breathe out. How do you feel today? Good? Paschal: Pretty Good. Dan: Great. We all know that good health is an important part of day-to-day life. If you are not feeling well, you are not going to be as productive as you typically would be. And when we scale that same concept out to an entire country, it still applies. The healthier a population is, the more productive it is likely to be. Paschal: But we’ll all face illness at some point. So, what do you do if you are poor and living in a country in which health services are expensive or are hard to access? Seeking health treatment might be incredibly difficult. Dan: It’s a complex challenge, one facing many countries: How to ensure that all people have access to the health care they need without suffering financial hardship? In this episode, we’re looking at how developing countries around the world are working toward meeting the goal of universal health coverage. Paschal: Universal heal

Au Sénégal, les petits producteurs récoltent les bénéfices de pratiques agricoles climato-intelligentes. Grâce aux semences certifiées et aux nouvelles technologies, ils produisent davantage de vivres pour leurs familles, font mieux face aux effets du changement climatique et réduisent leur impact sur l’environnement. #AfricaFeedsAfrica

Narrator: There’s a line out the door at the Sope Nabi Bakery in Thies, Senegal. The bread that’s sold here is delicious, but it’s special for another reason. It’s made of a composite flour that uses local climate-smart crop varieties. The World Bank-funded West Africa Agriculture Productivity Program or WAAPP is providing more bakers with this flour as it builds a climate-smart food system. Aifa Ndoye: “We are developing the value chain around the composite flour. We are doing it for millet and maize with an incorporation rate of 15% for bread and 50% for cake and this can help farmers get income with dry cereal. This project will also help to reduce the import of wheat because all the bread before was made by wheat 100%. Narrator: That’s Aifa Ndoye, Senior Agricultural Economist at the World Bank. She co-leads the WAAPP program in Senegal. The program develops climate-smart crop varieties—like the millet and maize that’s being used in the bread. WAAPP has delivered 160 climate-smart crop varieties, technolo

Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the world’s highest fertility rates, a young population, and a significant number of dependent youths. This demographic composition could be leveraged for greater prosperity, or lead to challenges that increase poverty. This episode looks at what policy makers could do to make the most of the region’s population trends.

Face à un changement et une variabilité climatiques entravant le développement de l’Afrique subsaharienne, un nouveau plan de la Banque mondiale présente les actions nécessaires à mener pour améliorer la résilience face au climat et promouvoir un développement à faibles émissions de carbone afin de préserver la croissance future et maintenir les objectifs de réduction de la pauvreté. Considérant que le changement climatique est la cause de la plupart des chocs maintenant ou plongeant les foyers africains dans la pauvreté, Accélérer un développement résilient au changement climatique et à faibles émissions de carbone : le Business plan pour le climat en Afrique vise à la fois à sensibiliser et à accélérer la mobilisation des ressources en faveur des initiatives prioritaires en matière de résilience au climat et de faibles émissions dans la région.

The World Bank Group today unveiled a new plan that calls for $16 billion in funding to help African people and countries adapt to climate change and build up the continent’s resilience to climate shocks. Titled Accelerating Climate-Resilient and Low-Carbon Development, the Africa Climate Business Plan will be presented at COP21, the global climate talks in Paris, on November 30. It lays out measures to boost the resilience of the continent’s assets – its people, land, water, and cities - as well as other moves including boosting renewable energy and strengthening early warning systems.

The Los Angeles-based band shares their twist on Cambodian ‘60s rock, a musical style that was nearly wiped out during the Khmer Rouge era, and talks about Cambodian Living Arts, a non-profit that pairs traditional artists with young people as a means of cultural preservation. To watch the musical performance, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhEWRSgS1FQ

For an engaging pair of digit-loving World Bank economists, Nobuo Yoshida and Umar Serajuddin, the number 77 brings up mixed emotions. That’s how many countries lack data on those living in poverty. Watch our intrepid economists explain why that’s bad news, and share their ideas on how to decrease the number 77 down to, oh say zero?